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Courtney E. Martin

Courtney E. Martin was a columnist for On Being. Her newest book, The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream, explores how people are redefining the American dream (think more fulfillment, community, and fun, less debt, status, and stuff). Courtney is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and a strategist for the TED Prize. She is also co-founder and partner at Valenti Martin Media and FRESH Speakers Bureau, and editor emeritus at Feministing.com.

As a parent of privilege, the decision to send your child to an underperforming school can be met with judgment and worries about safety and lack of resources. But what if these concerns aren’t as true as we believe them to be?

In our conversations about echo chambers and the necessity of speaking across difference, we often forget the importance — and difficulty — of disagreeing with the people most like us. On what's lost when we don't make that effort.

New research reveals that trauma experienced in childhood has longterm damaging effects on quality of life and lifespan. But the same research shows that adults play a critical role in helping children overcome this damage.

It's easy to see self-promotion as an exercise in narcissism. But when exercised with the right intentions and oriented toward societal good, it can be a powerful way to connect with and contribute to the world.

How do our duties as citizens map onto our duties as parents? Courtney Martin on the tensions between what is best for her children and what's best for the world. The first in a reported series on ethical parenting.

It is not enough to view social injustice as simply a problem to be solved, or a series of data points to be analyzed and understood. Allyship and activism require a deeper compassion, one that creates space for us to sit with each other’s pain.

Courtney Martin delves into America's dysfunctional relationship with sex, money, and power — and calls for a rethinking of sex education, to reflect the actual complexity and broad range of how human sexuality gets expressed and must be honored.

The Pause

Step away from the week with us.

The Pause is our Saturday morning newsletter, a gathering of threads from the far-flung, ongoing conversation that is The On Being Project. Stay up to date with our latest podcasts, writings, live events, and more.